Love Only Once
by StarStrewn
Summary: Okay, so this is a new story I've decided to work on. Jim and Pam…childhood friends, growing up, and then a story of when they are teenagers. Hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Office – unfortunately. **

**Okay, so this is a new story I've decided to work on. Jim and Pam…childhood friends, growing up, and then a story of when they are teenagers. I'm still working the details out, but here's the first chapter. Hope you enjoy! Please let me know what you think.**

A pretty woman sat at a small round table in a crowded café, one hot summer day. Her round stomach kept her a slight distance from the table and she patted her forehead wearily with a damp napkin.

"Do you mind?" Another woman had appeared, and was gesturing to the chair opposite the first woman. "I'm sorry, it's just so crowded and I can't really be on my feet too long." She laughed and patted her own pregnant belly.

"Oh, of course not!" The second woman gratefully sat down and reached her hand out over the table.

"Charlotte Beesly." She said, tucking an auburn curl of hair behind her ear.

"Lucy Halpert." They shook hands.

"How far are you?" Charlotte asked politely. Lucy let out a big sigh.

"Around 26 or so. You?"

"Almost the same – I'm 24 weeks." Charlotte said, touching her belly lightly.

"Isn't it just _terrible_, in this heat?"

"Oh, yes. Our house is just an iceblock these days, I can't bear the heat. My husband has to wear a _coat_ inside; I make him turn the air conditioner up so high!" They both laughed.

"It'll all be worth it in the end, though."

"Hmm, I can't wait. Are expecting a boy or girl, do you know?"

"Well, we decided not to find out. We want to be surprised, but my husband just seems to be sure it's a boy." Lucy admitted.

"We want to be surprised to." The woman smiled at each other.

"Do you know what you want to order, ladies?" A waiter appeared by their side.

"Oh, um...lobster with peanut butter, please." They said sheepishly at the exact same time. They looked surprised at each other and burst out laughing. Their friendship was sealed.

Bonding over their same cravings – lobster and peanut butter – the 2 women's friendship grew. They sat on their verandas, eating cherry tomatoes and slim wands of celery, complaining about their swollen feet and sharing names.

"For a boy, I like James or Matthew. But for a girl, I like Sarah or Chloe, and were still debating over Ella and Rose." Lucy said.

"Oh, I like James! James Halpert, what a great sounding name. And Sarah is quite sweet. I like Luke, Noah or Xavier for a boy and Alexa or Pamela."

"Pamela Beesly. That's nice. So is Noah."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Char, I swear, these kids are going to be the best of friends." Charlotte nodded contently and looked at the afternoon sun, setting over the ocean.

"Yeah." She said dreamily. "Definitely." They sat peacefully for a moment or so and then –

"Oh!" Lucy sat straight up fast, clutching her stomach.

"Lucy?" Charlotte straightened up too, and looked at her friend in concern.

"Oh! Ouch! Ouch, Char…Char…I think the baby's coming!" She gasped, breathing hard.

"Lucy! Oh my…I'll…I'll get Michael!" Charlotte cried, calling for Michael Halpert. Se grabbed Lucy's hand and squeezed it.

"Oh…oh, okay. Lucy, breathe! Just breathe Lucy! C'mon you can do it, quick let's get you to the car!" Charlotte almost shouted in her panic. Michael burst out of the house and the next thing Charlotte knew, they were at the hospital, racing down the hallway, Lucy crying out in pain. 10 hours, 2 minutes and 48 seconds later, at 2:02am, James Peter Halpert was born. And exactly 2 weeks later, at 4:01am, Pamela Morgan Beesly was born. The tiny bundles of joy were just destined to be together, everyone kidded, as the 2 lay beside each other in the nursery. For months after, the 2 proud mothers watched their babies roll around on the grass, playing with their feet and sucking on pacifiers and sweet, small strawberries. Fall followed, and the green leaves of the trees turned warm reds and bronzes, and fluttered delicately to the ground. Jim and Pam, Jam, as they had affectionately been nicknamed, were just beginning to crawl and crept around in piles of colourful leaves.

"Ugh, when will it end?" Lucy groaned, bouncing a screaming Jim on her hips.

"Never. What have we done to deserve this?" Charlotte complained, walking Pam around the kitchen, patting her back soothingly as she sobbed. The babies were toothing and Lucy and Charlotte found that they cried less (just barely, but less) when they were together.

"Look, look, Jim, its Pam! Say hi to Pam!" Lucy offered desperately. Jim's screams turned to whimpers as he watched a sniffling Pam over his mother's shoulder.

"That's it! Watch, look at Jimmy, Pam." Charlotte said relaxingly.

"Yes, look at each other and please, please be quiet." They laughed wearily. After several long, exhausting weeks, a couple of little white teeth shot up and Jim and Pam proudly smacked their gums, showing off their new teeth to anyone passing by.

"They weren't so cute when those teeth were growing." Charlotte said lovingly.

"Oh, just wait for the terrible twos." Lucy sighed, but smiled.

"Anyway, at least they have each other."

"I'm sure that lessens the blow…for them." They both laughed.

Lucy rushed around her house, searching for Jim and Pam, who was spending the night there, while Charlotte and Christopher Beesly were out of town. Both Jim and Pam had learnt to walk a little, and since then, they'd been almost impossible to handle. It was a dark night, and buckets of rain were pouring outside.

"Michael!" Lucy cried over a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning. "I've lost Jim and Pam!" She said, near to tears.

"Calm down, honey, they have to be here somewhere. Where were they before you realized they were missing?"

"Um…in the living room, watching Babar."

"Okay, I'll look upstairs; you stay here and keep looking." He strode up the stairs quickly leaving Lucy fretfully searching. She looked around the couch and in the kitchen cabinets. She was looking behind the TV when she heard laughter.

"Luce, come up here." Michael appeared at the top of the stairs. "I found 'em." Lucy hurried up the stairs and followed Michael into their room.

"Where? Where?" Lucy cried. Her husband walked to their bed and lifted the covers.

"Look. Under the bed." Lucy got down on her knees and peered under the bed. A smile spread over her face and she clapped a hand to her mouth.

"Oh, how sweet! They look so peaceful!" And there, under the bed, safe and protected from the howling wind and pouring rain, were Jim and Pam, tucked under a blanket. Pam was clutching a small plush elephant that Lucy recognized as Jim's. How sweet they looked, huddled together in their footie pyjamas, dark eyelashes against their plump cheeks, their stomachs rising and falling. Lucy stroked Jim's tousled caramel-coloured hair and ran her hand through Pam's auburn curls. She looked just like her mother.

"Should we put them in their own beds?" She wondered aloud.

"Nah let them sleep." Michael said, putting his arm around his wife. "Let them sleep."

**So, what'd you think? I can't wait to write more, this chapter was really fun. Please review, it would mean a lot to me. **** Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! xx**


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: Still don't own The Office. Sigh.**

They shared their first birthday. There was a big cake with blue frosting and frosted pink flowers and frosted red balloons. There were multicoloured streamers strung from the ceiling and a big bunch of balloons. Pam wore an adorable blue dress with white spots. Her mother tried to strap her into some white sandals but Pam kicked them off each time, giggling. Jim was supposed to wear a mini tuxedo but after about 15 minutes of crying and gnawing on his tie, Lucy changed him into a simple blue t-shirt and overalls. They didn't invite many people, just some relatives and friends.

"Next time, we'll just get them the wrapping paper." Christopher commented, smiling, as the 2 babies rolled around in the strewn bows and wrapping paper, their new present ignored. The party was quiet and fun, but when Pam and Jim started to smear birthday cake on each other, it quickly ended.

As soon as Jim and Pam learned to walk steadily, they never stopped. They climbed on the sofas, crawled onto kitchen chairs, toddled all around the house and kept their parents very exercised. They passed the terrible two's, had their 3rd birthday and age 4 seemed to fly by. It was age 5 that both mother's dreaded. The year that they would go to school. Mr Beesly and Mr Halpert laughed and pointed out it had to come sometime, but Lucy and Charlotte prepared and packed lunches; bought new lunchboxes and backpacks and freshly sharpened coloured pencils. Also, they hugged their children a lot and fussed over them. But by Monday morning, neither mother was ready to say goodbye.

"_Mum_." Jim said in a strangled voice as Lucy desperately tried to flatten his tousled hair with a wet comb. He was wearing jeans, a new blue t-shirt with a penguin on the front and new sneakers. His backpack was orange and even though his father had tightened the straps twice, it still hung halfway down his back. In one hand was a green dinosaur lunchbox. Jim, trying to pull away from his mother, was the opposite of Pam, who was clinging to her mothers legs and crying.

"I don't _want_ to go, Mummy! Let me stay here with you for another year. You need me here, who will help you?" She sniffled and looked up at her mother with big, green eyes framed by wet eyelashes. She was dressed in a new, navy blue dress with a square white collar and red trim. Her curls were loose, but pinned to the side was a red ribbon, now slightly undone. She looked like a little sailor and carried a light pink lunchbox with the Jetsons on it.

"Oh, honey, be brave for Mummy, okay?" Charlotte pleaded, near tears herself.

"Don't worry." Her father consoled, crouching down to eye level. "School is only 3 blocks away, if you really hate it, we'll come and get you. Okay?" Pam considered this silently for a moment.

"Okay." She sniffed at last. Her father kissed her nose.

"Good girl." Pam took her time, making sure her black, 'fancy' shoes were still shiny and that her red pack back still held her pencils and doll.

"Come on." Jim said patiently, holding his hand out. Pam took it and with one last worried look over her shoulder, they trotted down the street to school.

School, Pam had to admit was fun. Their teacher was nice and sweet and the subjects were okay, especially when they were allowed to colour stuff in. But best of all was lunchtime. They were allowed 20 minutes a day, not including free time in class. Pam and Jim sat under the big oak tree and swapped sandwiches.

"I have PB and J." Pam said, handing hers to Jim.

"I have ham and cheese." Jim said, handing his to Pam. They took a bite at the exact same time, and sipped their juice.

"You know what?" Pam said contently.

"What?"

"School is okay."

"Yeah. It's okay. I guess."

"Except for bullies." Jim looked in surprise at Pam.

"There are no bullies!" Pam's eyes widened and she put her sandwich down.

"There are! I heard some second grade girls talking about it!"

"What did they say?"

"That they had to watch out for Bully Jackson and that meanie Ashley."

"I don't know them." Jim said suspiciously.

"Me either," Pam admitted. "But they were big girls, so it has to be true."

"Well don't worry about any bullies. I'll protect you." Jim said bravely. Pam smiled. And for the rest of lunch, Jim looked over his shoulder almost every 5 minutes.

"Mum!" Pam flung herself at her mother who was watering the flowers in her yard.

"Hey Pam!" Charlotte swung the little girl in the air and hugged her tight. "How was school?"

"Good. Miss Johnson is so nice and she let me clean the board. And Jim sits right next to me in class and lets me borrow his red crayon."

"Well, that's very nice of him. Were the other kids nice?"

"Yes. Except for I heard there were bullies at school."

"Bullies?" Charlotte panicked a little.

"Yup. Only don't worry, Jim's going to protect me." Charlotte smiled, amused.

"I'm sure he will, sweetie. Now come inside, I have some cookies and milk waiting." On the other side of the street, Jim was eating a banana and telling his mum about the first day of school.

"Our teacher is Miss Johnson." He said between bites. "She's pretty nice, I guess. And she was so happy when she learned I could count all the way to 20. You should've heard her she kept going, James I am so improsed! I am just so impreased!" Lucy stifled a laugh.

"I think you mean impressed."

"That's what I said. And then we got to go out to lunch and me and Pam swapped lunches and I protected her from bullies."

"Bullies? There were bullies? Did they tease Pam? What happened?" Lucy asked quickly.

"Yes…yes…no…I don't know." Jim said slowly. "Pam heard big girls talking about bullies, 'n she was worried so I kept an eye out for 'em."

"Oh, you were so brave." Lucy grinned and Jim puffed his chest out in pride.

"Yeah." He agreed.

"Well," Lucy said, clearing the table. "At least no matter what, you'll have each other."

**So, what did you think? Please review and let me know! Thanks for reading. xx**


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: I own The Office. And by ****own**** I mean: I don't and never will. **

_CRASH. _Pam snapped her head up from the book she was reading under a tree and leapt to her feet at the large crash. She was just in time to see Jim and his bike fly straight into a fence. He'd been riding his bike around all day since he'd gotten a new one with no training wheels. They were both 7, but Pam didn't even like riding her bike, let alone riding it with only 2 wheels. But Jim liked to ride fast, wheels slicing through muddle puddles until a straight line of dirt ran up his back.

"Jim!" Pam cried in panic. She ran as fast she could, she let her book drop to the grass. Normally she would set it down, so the spine and pages wouldn't tear but Jim was hurt. Her best friend. She skidded to a stop in front of Jim. The wheels of his bike where spinning wildly but Jim was sitting against the fence brushing dust from his hair. Pam took it all in – the bloody mess on his knee, the scrape on his elbow…and a little way away a tooth lay on the road in a puddle of blood. Pam screamed, then immediately felt stupid for doing so.

"Jim, your tooth!"

"It's okay it was loose anyway." Jim said steadily, spitting out some blood. He smiled, shaking some hair out of his eyes and Pam could see a gap in his smile. She looked closer at his knee – there was a lot of blood and some little bits of asphalt. She felt sick and weak at the knees, she couldn't stand blood.

"Um…you…your knee…" she tried to point it out weakly. Jim looked at his knee carefully.

"Interesting." He said calmly, in true Jim fashion. That was when Pam fainted.

Her mother laughed when Pam told her what had happened later. The first few times Pam had fainted, she'd panicked and fussed over her but now she was used to Pam getting woozy at the sight of blood.

"My poor baby." She sighed, but she wasn't really too worried.

"I was okay though, and when I woke up I put a bandaid on Jim's knee."

"My little nurse." Charlotte kissed her forehead and put some apple slices in front of her. Pam bit into one and wobbled her loose tooth a little.

"Jim knocked one of his teeth out." She informed her mother.

"Did he now? It won't be long until your loose tooth falls out will it?" Pam nodded, and a wisp of a curl escaped from her ponytail.

"I don't want it to though." She said, wrinkling her nose.

"Why not?"

"Blood."

"Oh," Charlotte laughed. "Well, don't you worry; it'll be over before you know it." Pam raised her eyebrows and bit into another apple slice.

Pam was at the Halpert's house when she lost her first tooth. She'd complained about it for weeks to Jim.

"It's going to fall out soon. I can feel it." She said. "I'm going to get a huge gap and it'll be all gummy and gross."

"No it won't." Jim said.

"Yes, it will." She countered.

"Why don't you just get it over with?" Jim finally suggested. Pam was suspicious.

"How?"

"Easy. I just tie one end of a string to your tooth and the other end to the doorknob and then I shut the door and bam!" Pam's eyes widened.

"Your tooth is out!" Pam considered this.

"I don't know…will it hurt?"

"Only for a second." She thought for a moment.

"Okay. Just…make it quick, okay?"

"I promise." He snapped his fingers twice, their secret promise signal. 5 minutes later, Pam sat on Jim's bed, a string securely tied to her tooth while Jim stood at the door, ready to swing it shut.

"Ready?" Pam shut her eyes and nodded. She felt a slight pressure on the string and panicked. What was she doing? She didn't want her tooth to fly out on a string! She was yanking out her own tooth! Just then, Jim swung the door shut.

"Ow!" Pam cried. "That really hurt!"

"Sorry. But the good news is, the tooth is out." Jim proudly held up her tooth and handed her a cup of water.

"The gap isn't bad either." She rinsed her mouth and smiled into a mirror.

"Are you kidding? It looks terrible!" She frowned.

"No, it doesn't. It really doesn't Pam. It looks beautifully." Jim said sweetly. And snapped his fingers twice.

**Sorry about the short chapters guys! I promise I'll them longer and soon the important stuff happens! I'm excited. Anyway, please review, it would mean a lot to me. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! Xx **


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